Rosemary Kilbourn is a Canadian

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

and

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

artist known for her work in the wood engraving.

Early life and education

Born in Toronto, Canada, Kilbourn attended high school at Havergal College. She graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1953, then studied wood engraving at the Slade School in London, England.

Painting and wood engraving

Upon returning to Ontario, she was commissioned to paint a mural for the new dining hall at the University of Western Ontario. Along with commissioned portraits, her early works included illustrating, with wood engravings, two books by her brother

William Kilbourn William Morley Kilbourn, CM, FRSC (1926–1995) was a Canadian author and historian in Toronto, Ontario. Kilbourn's topics cover history, biography, religion and the arts, with a focus on Toronto; he penned over a dozen books. He was mar ...

, ''The Firebrand'' (1956); ''The Elements Combined'' (1960); and Farley Mowat's, ''

The Desperate People ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' (1959). Kilbourn worked actively in wood engraving from the 1960s to the 1980s. In addition to her book-sized wood engravings, Kilbourn used larger than normal wood blocks to engrave both

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

and figure compositions for individual prints. In 1976 she illustrated

Florence Wyle Florence Wyle (November 14, 1881 – January 14, 1968) was an American-Canadian sculptor, designer and poet; a pioneer of the Canadian art scene. She practiced chiefly in Toronto, living and working with her partner Frances Loring, with whom s ...

's collection of poems ''Shadow of the Year'' published by Aliquando Press. Her wood engraving based on

Frederick Philip Grove Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Nobility Anhalt-Harzgerode *Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) Austria * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria from 1195 to 1198 * Frederi ...

's ''Fruits of the Earth'' was featured on a Canadian memorial 17-cent stamp in 1979. Recently, with Anne Corkett, she selected poems by

Richard Outram Richard Daley Outram (April 9, 1930 – January 21, 2005) was a Canadian poet. Often regarded as a poet's poet, he wrote eleven commercially published books of poetry in addition to the many collections of poetry and prose published under the imp ...

to accompany illustrations by Thoreau MacDonald, a work commissioned by the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto: ''South of North: Images of Canada'' by Richard Outram with drawings by Thoreau MacDonald (2007). In 2012 The Porcupine's Quill published ''Out of the Wood'', a collection of eighty reproductions of wood engravings by Kilbourn, done over a period of fifty years, accompanied by short, elegiac fragments of text that elucidate her unique and influential aesthetic. Some of the reproductions fold out into a double spread; 'Out of the Wood' also includes a full-size reproduction of ''The Obedience of Noah'', which gives an example of the large scale of some of Kilbourn's work.

Stained glass work

In the late 1960s Kilbourn began to create

window commissions for churches, including windows for St. Thomas's Anglican Church, Toronto where she illustrated one of T.S. Eliot's poems from the Four Quartets. Other windows include those in St. Bartholomew's Anglican Church in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

.; St. Timothy's Anglican Church, Toronto; St. Michael and All Angels Anglican Church, Toronto; St. James' Cathedral Church, Toronto and Trinity Anglican Church, Ottawa, among others.

Studio and teaching

Kilbourn has lived and worked in an old schoolhouse in the Albion Hills since 1957, and has taught at the Artists' Workshop in Toronto, Central Technical School, and McMaster University.

Honours and awards

In 1977 Kilbourn was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and to England's Society of Wood Engravers in 2001. Her name was entered in Havergal College's Hall of Distinction in 2004.

Exhibitions

Kilbourn's work was featured in exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada in 1966 and 1969. She participated in exhibitions with the British Society of Relief Block Printers from 1973 to 1975. A survey exhibition of Kilbourn's work was held at the Art Gallery of Hamilton in 2018–19.

Collections

Montreal Museum of Fine Art The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA; french: Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, MBAM) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square ...

* Art Gallery of Greater Victoria * Art Gallery of Peel * Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery * McMaster University * University of Guelph * University of Regina * University of Calgary

References

External links

* Paddy Thomas et al.,
A History of Peel County: To Mark Its Centenary
', County of Peel, 1967. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kilbourn, Rosemary 1931 births Living people Artists from Ontario 20th-century Canadian printmakers People from Caledon, Ontario Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art 20th-century Canadian women artists Women printmakers 20th-century printmakers 21st-century Canadian women artists